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The Angolan authorities have shut down 279 diamonds sale and purchase houses, as well as canceled the activity of 122 co-operatives dealing in diamonds exploration, 52 days after the start of the “Operation Transparency”, announced last Wednesday in the northern Malanje Province, reports Angolan Press outlet ANGOP. “Operation Transparency” is essentially intended to fight illegal immigration, illegal exploration of diamonds and put a stop to environmental crimes committed in the ambit of the irregular prospecting of minerals.

The World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) and the International Diamond Manufacturers Association (IDMA) have cancelled their biannual conference, the World Diamond Congress, due to be held in Tel Aviv, Israel, from June 19 to 21. The diamond organizations cited poor registration figures - "too low to conduct a successful, meaningful and effective gathering" - likely as a result of political tensions in the region.

The United Nations General Assembly, welcoming progress made by the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme to break links between the diamond trade and conflict, on March 7 adopted a consensus resolution aimed at intensifying that work and aligning it with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

South Africa has a new minister of mineral resources, which is likely to be welcome news to the country's mining community. New President Cyril Ramaphosa announced his cabinet on Monday night, appointing former National Union of Mineworkers secretary general and national chairperson of the ruling ANC party Gwede Mantashe to head the Ministry of Mineral Resources. Mantashe was also the first trade unionist to be appointed to the board of a listed mining company (Samancor) in South Africa in 1995.

Sergey Ivanov (37), the young CEO and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the world’s largest diamond miner, ALROSA, was in Antwerp for the company’s annual meeting with its 56 long-term clients. ALROSA is a traditional company in a traditional business, and still evokes the reputation of a state-owned giant despite the partial privatization (currently 34%) of the company a few years ago.

Sergey Ivanov, CEO of ALROSA, held a working meeting in Moscow today with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Kingdom of Belgium Didier Reynders, and President of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) Stephane Fischler. The parties discussed issues related to the development of bilateral cooperation in the field of diamond trading, as well as cooperation within the framework of industry international organizations. ALROSA and AWDC made a joint presentation focusing on their excellent trade relationship and expressed their willingness to enhance their

Last December, the Government of Zimbabwe announced it would be relaxing laws that require black citizens hold majority stakes (51%) in companies as it looks to restore confidence and boost economic growth.

The U.S. sanctioned Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler, one of the biggest individual mining and diamond investors in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in what it calls a clampdown on human-rights abusers and corrupt actors, write Thomas Biesheuvel, Mark Burton, and William Clowes for Bloomberg Politics. The U.S. Treasury said Gertler has used his close relationship with the country’s president, Joseph Kabila, to amass a fortune through corrupt and opaque deals.

Angolan state-owned diamond company Sodiam will divest a stake in Geneva-based jewelry maker De Grisogono - a Swiss firm controlled by the husband of the billionaire daughter (Isabel) of former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos - for “reasons of public interest and legality,” report Henrique Almeida and Candido Mendes for Bloomberg Markets. The move comes, the journalists write, as Angola’s new leader, President Joao Lourenco, untangles the country from the business interests of his predecessor’s family.

India's jewelry sector can breathe a little easier after Friday's announcement of the removal of gems and jewelry from the scope of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, writes The Hindu Business Line. The sector has been hit hard by the dual impact of demonetisation and the Goods and Sales Tax (GST). Following the move, jewelers no longer need to verify the identity of their clients by a KYC process for every transaction of Rs. 50,000 ($765) or more made through a single or multiple transactions.

In response to a recent Reuters article (based on an Mmegi Online article) mentioned yesterday, Lucara Diamond Corp. - whose mining assets are located in Botswana - has issued a statement to "provide clarity" after the miner was mentioned specifically as a catalyst for a government decision to establish first rights to diamonds of "unusual" size or quality unearthed in the country.

Government authorities in Tanzania have seized a shipment of diamonds belonging to London-based Petra Diamonds, saying the miner under-declared the value of its mineral exports. On August 31, customs seized a parcel containing 71,654 carats rough gems at the Dar Es Salam airport as they were being exported to Antwerp by Williamson Diamonds, in which Petra holds a 75% stake and the Tanzanian State 25%.

South Africa has suspended implementation of a contentious and highly criticized mining ownership law pending a judgement in an urgent interdict application by mining companies, the country’s Chamber of Mines said. South African mineral resources minister, Mosebenzi Zwane, has agreed not to implement the current redraft of the Mining Charter Three pending judgement of an urgent interdict brought by the Chamber of Mines, a temporary victory for the miners.

Indian diamond manufacturers, brokers and merchants in the manufacturing center in Surat have unanimously decided to shut the industry for a day on June 17, demanding exemption of the polished diamonds from the 3% Goods and Service Tax (GST), writes The Times of India (TOI). They have formed a committee to lead the protest against the GST council's decison to impose 3% GST on polished diamonds and 18% GST on diamond trading.

The South African government has raised the minimum threshold for black ownership of mining companies to 30 percent in a surprise move that weakened the rand and knocked shares in the London-quoted mining groups Anglo American and Petra Diamonds. Shares in Anglo American have fallen sharply after South Africa announced changes to its mining regulations. They dropped 57p, or more than 5 percent to £10 after South Africa’s mineral resources minister Mosebenzi Zwane said miners have to raise their black-owned stakes to 30% from 26% under a revised version of its mining charter.

JCK's Rob Bates conducted an in-depth and personal interview with Cecilia Gardner, who recently stepped down after 18 years as president and CEO of the Jewelers Vigilance Committee, a not-for-profit trade association dedicated to compliance with laws pertaining to the jewelry industry.

Following the resignation of Andrey Zharkov as president of ALROSA, Sergey Ivanov, ex-head of insurer SOGAZ, and senior vice-president of Russia's largest lender Sberbank, was yesterday, March 6, officially appointed as President of the company for a three-year term. His appointment was signed by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. "The government directive on your appointment to the position of head of the sole executive body of ALROSA has been signed.

Speculation was already rampant about the potentially positive impact of having a First Lady and Daughter with their own retail brands; that impact has arrived in the first month, but whether or not it is positive is another question.

Award-winning journalist Rob Bates raises some highly relevant issues in the wake of the announcement by Ashley Orbach - U.S. Department of State’s special advisor for conflict diamonds for the last three years - that she will be leaving the agency and her role as advisor. There was always going to be a sense of uncertainty concerning the U.S. stance toward the Kimberley Process and human rights in the mining industry under the unpredictable new administration, and the loss of continuity signalled by Orbach's departure may well add to it.

Mbada Diamonds could have denied Zimbabwe of millions of dollars in revenue by under-declaring its diamond sales over the years after it emerged that its average price per carat was about three times lower than that of other firms extracting gems from Chiadzwa, writes The Herald.

"As a leading member of the U.S. Jewelry industry, we are writing to express our support for Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the corresponding Securities and Exchange Commission’s Conflict Minerals Rule.

Chinese shoppers are generally estimated to make approximately 30% of the world’s luxury purchases, and according to De Beers "Diamond Insight Report", Mainland Chinese demand for diamond jewelry doubled from a 7% global share in 2008 to 14% in 2015, making it the second largest consumer of diamond jewelry. Bain & Company estimated their share of the global luxury market decreased by one percentage point in 2016, due mainly to China’s economic growth slowdown, thriving deman

Reflecting on the impact of the Trump election victory on the future of the diamond trade, particularly on the U.S. and India, independent industry consultant Pranay Narvekar writes in GJEPC's Solitaire International that America's share of the global polished diamond market - already the highest by far at 45% of total value - should only increase in the coming years, while the strength of the dollar and other expected policy moves will only exacerbate uncertainty throughout the trade.

The Belgian Parliament has officially adopted the 'Diamond Regime', commonly known as the 'Carat Tax', as the new fiscal system for the Antwerp diamond industry. The new system stipulates that companies will no longer be taxed on the basis of their profit but on a fixed percentage of their turnover - thereby eliminating complicated discussions with tax authorities about the value of inventory, which is difficult to assess.

According to a report on the Israeli news site Hamodia, the country's tax authorities, following Israels commitments to the US and international organizations to apply a more stringent anti-money laundering policy, are targeting the Israeli diamond industry, generally considered the biggest offenders in this domain. Officials said that as of January 1st, the administration will go after tax fraud more agressively, implementing extended powers of investigation and enforcement.

The 2016 KP Plenary kicked off yesterday in Dubai as KP Chair Ahmed Bin Sulayem welcomed representatives of 81 governments and industry organizations. First day activities included a third diamond valution forum addressing the elusive question of how to provide fair value for diamonds from Africa and achieve a formalized approach to valuing diamond resources.

Earlier this week, Kimberley Process (KP) chair Ahmed Bin Sulayem issued a press release extending an, "Invitation to Civil Society to Attend [KP] Plenary", [civil society = NGOs] and also shared with the CSC a document providing an in-depth response addressing previous issues and concerns raised by the CSC at the beginning of the UAE KP Chairmanship ("Proposal for a Remediation Between the 2016 KP Chair and the Members of the Civil Society Coalition").

Thirteen years after the the United States government initially banned the import of all gemstones from Burma (Myanmar) to put pressure on the military junta that had ignored democratic elections, placed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest, and persecuted minority groups throughout the country, U.S. sanctions on imports of the Burmese gemstones were officially lifted by an executive order on October 7.

Martin Rapaport has released a statement claiming that due to the EU not being a major diamond consumer in recent years, with demand expected to fall even further as a result of potential currency and equity downturns in the EU and Great Britain, the impact of the Brexit will be that, "Global investment demand for higher quality diamonds as a store of value will increase due to global economic and political uncertainty." He does not anticipate that Chinese or Indian diamond demand will be impacted in a negative way. Furthermore, "The important U.S.

On Tuesday 14 June and Wednesday 15 June, members of the Antwerp Diamond Industry elected the new Board Members for the AWDC Board of Directors representing the trade. In 2012, the by-laws of the AWDC extended the duration of the mandates to four instead of two years and implemented an alternating rotation system that will renew half of the board every to years, which ensures continuation in the Board of Directors over the years. .

Award-winning news director of JCK Rob Bates, in his opinion piece "Why the NGOs and Dubai Still Can’t Get Along", addresses the persistent conflict between Kimberley Process (KP) chair UAE and the KP civil society coalition - the group of 11 human rights groups that participate in the KP - that is threatening to turn the upcoming KP interessional meetings into a failure: "the recent turn of events looks like we are in for another year of stagnation and animosity, and the scheme will once again fail to make needed improvements, despite the UAE’s promises last year of a fruitful, pr

India’s Ministry of Finance has formed a sub-committee to, "look into issues related to the Imposition of Central Excise duty on jewellery", which is the 1 percent excise duty recently imposed on the jewelry industry.

AllAfrica reports the recently formed Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) is set to improve revenue inflows into the cash-strapped government's coffers, according to Mines Minister Walter Chidhakwa. ZCDC took over operations in Marange diamond fields recently after government cancelled the permits of mining firms that were mining in the area, citing lack of transparency and investment. Chidhakwa told reporters recently that ZCDC would not wait for six months or a year to declare dividends to governments but would ensure funds were transferred to the treasury every month.

To raise public awareness on the Marcos' two-decades of plunder during martial law from 1965 to 1986, the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) on March 16 launched an online exhibit of selected pieces from the Hawaii jewelry collection, one of the three massive jewelry collections hoarded by Marcoses. This collection was seized by the US Bureau of Customs upon the Marcoses’ arrival in Hawaii in 1986 and is currently stored at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Brussels on March 30 to attend the first India-European Union summit in four years. Hopes are high that the first visit of an Indian prime minister to Brussels in six years will reinvigorate EU-India ties and inject new momentum into the relationship, possibly resuming dialogue for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) which hasn't materialized despite eight years of negotiations.

Press Release: In his 92nd-birthday interview on 3 March President Mugabe stated that the diamond sector had made $15 billion but the country had only received $2 billion from it and suggested various options for reforms. This came after the Zimbabwe Mining Minister announced on the 22 February that all diamond companies must cease operations with immediate effect after months of wrangling over the government’s proposal to merge all of the companies into one amalgamated entity. "It’s been clear for many years that Zimbabwe’s diamond industry needs to be radically reformed.

Pending a positive recommendation by the Kimberley Process (KP) monitoring team - consisting of representatives of the various KP working groups and civil society - after consideration of the results of their review visit to the Central African Republic (CAR), the resumption of rough diamond exports from CAR is looking increasingly possible.

Saying that existing miners had robbed the country of its wealth, President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe on Thursday said that his government would take possession of all diamond operations. “The state will now own all the diamonds in the country,” Mugabe said during a two-hour interview with state broadcaster ZBC TV. “Companies that have been mining diamonds have robbed us of our wealth.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have urged their citizens to leave Lebanon or avoid travelling there. The UAE also banned its citizens from travelling to Lebanon and reduced its diplomatic presence in Beirut. Bahrain also urged citizens against travelling to Lebanon, and called on Bahrainis there already to leave quickly, according to a statement posted to state news. The move on Tuesday came after Riyadh halted $4bn in aid to Lebanese security forces in response to "hostile" positions linked to Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah.

The Southern Times (Southern Africa) reports that the partnership between the Botswana government and diamond giant De Beers faces an uncertain future with opposition parties in the country making repeated calls that it should be terminated. Leaders of main opposition Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) say there is need to reconsider the relationship between the Southern African country and De Beers.

The National reports that UAE is ready to back a bid by Venezuela to return to the international diamond trading community, said Ahmed bin Sulayem, chairman of the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, after a series of meetings in the country. Mr bin Sulayem is the new chairman of the Kimberley Process (KP), the regulatory regime for the global diamond trade. Venezuela, rich in the gems but facing a financial meltdown as a result of low oil prices, wants to resume diamond trading after a seven-year halt.

Reuters reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin may be looking to sell some of the country's largest companies, including the world's largest diamond miner, ALROSA. Russian oligarchs are the most likely potential buyers of the stakes, but in contrast to Putin's 2014 insistance that public offerings of Russian state companies be done on the Moscow Exchange - ruling out more liquid, deeper markets in Hong Kong, London, and New York, limiting access to Western investors - the Kremlin said that foreign investors were welcome to participate in the privatization, which has been dri

The World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) will hold its 37th World Diamond Congress in Dubai from May 16 to 19, and has identified transparency, responsibility and sustainability as the key themes of the meeting.

Pope Francis - in a speech on 26 November in Nairobi, Kenya to the regional UN headquarters during his first official trip to Africa - said that illegal trade in diamonds and other precious stones and metals, as well as the poaching of elephants for their ivory tusks, “fuels political instability, organized crime and terrorism.” He said that, “This situation is a cry rising up from humanity and the Earth itself, one which needs to be heard by the international community.” He also stated that, “We cannot be silent about forms of illegal trafficking which arise in situations of poverty and in

Yesterday, the Civil Society Coalition announced at the KP Plenary meeting in Angola that it will boycott the KP next year in protest at the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) 2016 chairmanship due to, "widespread concerns over UAE's lenient standards and antagonistic relationship with the Coalition." Partnership Africa Canada 's (PAC) Director of Research, Alan Martin, said: "We have been calling on Dubai to change its harmful diamond trading practices.

Shmuel Schnitzer, the President of the Israel Diamond Exchange for the past two years, and who previously served as president from 1998 to 2004, will not be a candidate for the December elections for President of the exchange, according to a spokesperson for the bourse. The election will be contested by Yoram Dvash, owner of Yoram Dvash Diamonds, and Arnon Yuval, a partner at S. Yuval & Co. Both currently serve on the IDE’s executive committee.

Last summer, Ozypublished a story on efforts to revitalize and legitimize the mining and polishing of gemstones in Afghanistan, a trade which, if successful, could contribute to its wrecked economy. Afghan emeralds are considered among the finest in the world by some international experts, but while the country therefore has potential to grow within the colored gemstone market, it is difficult to mine and process the stones given the precarious political situation in this stil

Bollywood stars and businessmen are coming together to start legal proceedings in London’s High Court for the return of the 105-carat Koh-i-Noor diamond, which they say was stolen from its true home. The move could result in some awkward moments at a lunch the Queen is hosting for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Buckingham Palace this week, although a Royal source said the row was strictly off the agenda, according to the Daily Mail.

Back on May 20, the European parliament issued a surprising vote in favor of enforcing an obligatory monitoring system for the whole supply chain of conflict minerals, affecting 800,000 European companies. The measure entails that European gold, tantalum (the material that makes mobile phones vibrate), tungsten and tin imports from conflict zones will be subjected to tougher surveillance procedures.

Last Monday, the Zimbabwean government and the European Union signed a €89 million package of agreements for health, agriculture and institution building in the country). At the signing ceremony, Head of EU Delegation to Zimbabwe, Ambassador Philippe Van Damme, said EU member states are engaging with Zimbabwe not only in through aid but also increasingly through trade and investment.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe aims to restart the country's stagnating economy but analysts say the plans need fleshing out. Abe said that Japan, the world's third-largest diamond consumer and economy, needs a strong economy, child-care support and social security to combat the demographic problems facing Japan due to the aging and shrinking of its 127-million population.

According to Afropages.fr, the Angolan government is determined to crack down on foreigners who are said to illegally mine diamonds in the regions of Seteca, Catacala, Nhaera and Soma Kwanza. Government sources say the illegal diamond diggers come predominantly from Congo, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Soudan and Mauritania and are also said to be involved in drug trafficking, people-trafficking and money-laundering.

Growing joblessness and the slowdown in the diamond and ceramic sectors is fuelling unrest in the Patel community. Patels dominate the diamond and ceramic industry. About 40% of small and medium enterprises in Gujarat are controlled by Patels, who constitute around 15% of the state's population. It is no coincidence that the biggest Patidar (Patel) rallies over last two months and most violent protests last week took place in diamond hubs of Surat, Bapunagar in Ahmedabad and Amreli. About 450 small diamond units, mainly doing job-work for medium and big diamond companies, have shut down.

Angola is an example of leadership in diamond mining activity, says the United States Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour Steven Feldstein, who cites the country's example in safe extraction processes.

Based upon progress made to date by the Central African Republic, KP Participants and Observers reached an understanding that the CAR may commence exports of rough diamonds upon full implementation of an “Operational Framework” and pending completion of the KP Review Mission report. The announcement states that, "The 'Administrative Decision on the Central African Republic [Temporary Suspension]' of May 23, 2013 is amended to allow for resumption of trade in rough diamonds from 'compliant zones' that are to be established under conditions set forth by this AD."